Kenneth Bermudez, MD, is a board-certified plastic surgeon with more than 20 years of experience. He is committed to helping his San Francisco cosmetic and reconstructive surgery patients achieve — and often exceed — their cosmetic goals.

Monthly Archives: May 2013

Amazing story!
In Poland, 33-year-old man received a life-saving face transplant 3 weeks after being injured at work.
Face transplant scar incredibly complicated and rare procedures that usually will are extensive preparation.
From what we understand, this patient's condition was extreme and his life was at risk due to the inability of eating, breathing and open wounds.
The patient worked as a stone mason and suffered a machine injury which severely damaged his upper jaw and face. An attempted replant of his own face failed and therefore, he was taken to the Cancer Center and Instituted of Oncology in Gliwice, Poland, where a 27 hour face and bone transplant was performed on May 15.
Surgery reconstructed his facial skeleton, as well as his palate, soft tissues, and lips. The donor was also a young man, but required appropriate matching prior to the transplant.
The doctors performing the surgery stated that this was the only shot that the patient had surviving his injuries. They assume the patient will return to normal life. He will require immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of his life in order to keep his body from injecting the donated facial tissue.

After a brief hiatus from the FDA review, we have finally received approval to start the BRAVA with AFT.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its review of our investigational device exemption (IDE) application for the referenced clinical study. The FDA has determined that “there are no subject protection concerns that preclude initiation of the investigation” and has approved Brava.
In essence, we have been given permission to resume the referenced study. Furthermore, the FDA categorized the Brava device as a “CMS Reimbursement Category B1” type. A category B1 designation now allows the device to obtain insurance reimbursement via the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and presumably, by private insurers as well, on a going forward basis, so long as they are participants of the current clinical trials.
Both reconstructive breast surgery patients and patients who want regular breast augmentation surgery will be candidates for this treatment. We are ready to start evaluating patients and performing this ground breaking procedure.
Please call our office for an appointment. 415-668-2122.

If I were to pick one question that I get asked over and over again, it would be about stretch marks. Stretch marks are a form of scarring of the skin. It's caused by stretching or tearing of the dermis (the intermediate layer of your skin, not visible externally, that helps your skin retain its shape). They are a result of tearing and stretching of the skin associated with rapid growth or weight changes. stretch marks can also be influenced by hormonal changes associated with pregnancy, puberty, bodybuilding and hormone replacement therapy.
Initially the stretch marks appear as reddish or purple lines, but will eventually faded to a lighter color depending on the skin type. Stretch marks can appear anywhere in the body, but more commonly occur in places were large amounts of fat are stored (abdomen, breasts, upper arms, thighs and buttocks). They pose no health risk, and did not compromise the body stability to function normally.
They're have been a few things that promote stretch marks. High body mass index, low maternal age, weight gain over 30 pounds and higher birth weight were independently associated with the occurrence of stretch marks in a few studies. Additionally, teenagers are at the highest risk of developing severe stretch marks.
75-90% woman developed stretch marks to some degree during pregnancy. Elevated hormonal levels during pregnancy will cause stretch marks to appear around the sixth or seventh month of pregnancy. This is also one the skin tends to be subjected to higher levels of stretching forces. A German research team tested the application of massaging and cream and found that only one third of women with this treatment developed stretch marks while two thirds of the untreated controlled group developed stretch marks. Unfortunately, it was not clear from the paper that this was a double-blind study.
A few other studies found that the daily application of vitamin E oil was associated with less severe stretch marks during pregnancy. During pregnancy, do recommend that woman daily skin moisturized in order to prevent itchiness from the dry, and stretch skin. It may also be preventative in regards to decrease in the amount of stretch marks.
It seems that every month or so I get a new advertisement for some type of cream or laser or therapy for the improvement of mature stretch marks. Pulsed dye laser, fractional laser, and special creams have shown some mild to moderate effects, but nothing, other than surgery has effectively removed stretch marks.
The most common surgery we use to improve abdominal contour and remove lower abdominal stretch marks is an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck). Liposuction alone will not improve the appearance of stretch marks and in some cases it may make the situation worse by increasing the amount of loose skin.
Hope this helps.